How To Rebut Gripes

Rebuttals should address reasons it is not a valid gripe, and should not accuse the gripe of being "silly" or "stupid."

Gripes about GTA IV

Gameplay

Minor clothing items are removed during some cut scenes and missions. (glasses, hats)

This can be easily explained by Niko having manners... i.e. he would remove his hat or glasses before speaking with someone.

No store hold ups for easy cash or burglary missions.

You can't buy real estate like in San Andreas and Vice City.

You can't Own Businesses.

You can't do home invasion like in San Andreas.

The Hand-to-Hand Combat is not as good as in San Andreas.

Stealth kills as in San Andreas are no longer possible.

There aren't as many different clothing styles and options as there used to be, especially in San Andreas and theres very few "silly" options like mad hats and such.

Friends often call to do things at inconvenient times and are often on the other side of the city.

Friends don't give you enough time to get to their location before they become impatient.

You can't evade or outrun your wanted level in a helicopter.

The camera angle is too low with no way to change it, I spend all my driving time holding UP, same as San Andreas.

There is no riot cheat! No more chaos.

Some missions are somewhat difficult to pass.

Ordering items on TV or at Tw@ does not work. You can't even order vehicles by calling them, even though it says so at AutoErotiCar.com.

Destruction of buildings isn't featured.

No matter how hard players try to get away from the police's radius, cops seem to spawn near the player's vehicle. Hiding is nearly impossible, even on secluded areas.

You can longer respond to random comments either positively or negatively.

You must keep your 'friends' happy to retain their special perks. It would have been preferable to unlock their abilities once and then be left to the player to decide whether they wish to continue the 'friendship'.

Street Gang-Banging and generally street gang-related missions have been dramatically reduced, means, no point in shooting other gang members.

Only 9 street races available and difficult to access them through the phone system.

No special races that unlock special cars (like Destruction Derby).

With so little to buy Money is worthless.

No parachute.

Cops manage to shoot your tires out, even if you're going 100mph.

Crashing on a motorcycle and bailing out of a car aren't fun anymore, and often result in death.

You can't order cars from Stevie's garage once the text message missions he gives you are completed.

Combat is unrealistic and hard to attack people. You'll have to use weapons to kill them instead (not meleé ones).

During shooting missions, you die very easily by shooters before you even run for cover. Enemies somewhat has great aiming, and Body Armor is highly recommended for hard missions.

Autosave may not happen all the time. Whenever you complete missions, you are forced to save the game manually instead of having the game to automatically save for you.

You cant fight the cops like in other GTA games.

Actually, you can fight cops. Just take out your gun and shoot them. You also fight them in missions, like the Bank Heist.

That's one of the worst ideas you posted on. If you take out a gun and shoot at the cop, you'll get 2 wanted star levels and more cops will swarm in and kill you. And if you attempt to fight a cop, he will easily arrest you and don't even bother holster a weapon. Cops will always shoot back anyways.

All cops attacked you in previous GTA IV games. And if you don't suck, then you are able to survive the cops with no problem. So yes, you can fight the cops.

The majority of the good cheats are gone (like chaos, citizens with weapons, cars fly away with hits etc etc etc).

Rockstar never releases cheats they are found by the players most likely the same cheats are there, they just haven't been found yet.

There are only 2 pairs of glasses in the whole game, and both of them are ugly.

Whenever you crash you go flying out of the windsheild.

Vehicles

Tanks would be unrealistic, as the armed forces would not send a tank into New York City after a single man. Airplanes would also be unrealistic because air-travel around New York City is extremely restricted, plus there's really not enough area to need air-travel.

There are no car mods or even simply choosing your paint color.

The yellow boxes in front of safehouses are stupid and poorly made. Often AI traffic hits them as they're driving, causing the saved cars to disappear. Garages were much better and safer, and less chance of cars disappearing.

No "R3" Missions for anything other than the police cruiser.

There are not enough special vehicles like golf carts, lawn mowers, and bicycles.

There are fewer cars in the game compared to San Andreas, and no fixed-wing aircraft available to the player.

There are only 5 residential vehicle parking spaces, which means you are forced to store few of your favorite cars into the parking space, since Rockstar Games refused to explain why.

Weapons

Ammo limits are really, really annoying.

This is personal opinion. Ammo limits are not so low that it's difficult to complete missions. In fact, it's more than enough.

What if you are confronted against FBIs and NOOSE patrol teams? If you're very low on ammo, then you're completely defenseless and then you die. Like in GTA SA, there were no ammo limits (you can store 900 rockets, have 7000 pistoms, SMGs, have 900 Flamethrower containers, etc.). Besides, Ammo limits are very humiliating.

After you beat the game the ammo limit is gone, you keep putting them in, after awhile it may saw you have 9999 of 30 for the machine gun but fire and reload and it says you still have 9999 of 30, ammo limit is removed with completion of the game.

There are not enough "special" weapons like the chainsaw, the golf club, the pool cue, or the fire extinguisher like there were in GTA San Andreas.

Little Jacob doesn't sell all the weapons, so an expensive trip to the gun store is required.

Later on in game he sells armor, rockets, m16 ammo, grenades etc.

Dual-wielding weapons is no longer possible.

You can't use free-aim because the targeting reticule automatically locks on to pedestrians, so you'll have to use your Sniper Rifle to shoot pigeons. Even if you try and force the aiming reticule off of the pedestrians, it will simply lock on to another pedestrians, so there is no way to make the aiming reticule let you aim yourself.

If you hold the aim trigger all the way down it targets a person, if you hold it part of the way down you can move the reticle around to aim how you please, like shooting through the winshield of a moving car to kill the driver.

ProLaps are seen at the Starlight District, but is no longer accessible. Didier Sachs may be seen at the same location, but is also inaccessible, including Binco.

You can't go underwater to see fishes, dolphins, turtles, even sharks.

The two largest straightaways in Alqonquin are both under construction, leaving no place to really go fast.

Alderney doesn't have any food stores and barely any places of interest, making it a useless area to visit.

The Bars is inaccessible because you have to be accompanied by a friend.

Rockstar Changed The Name Of The Islands(i.e. Staunton and portlands name are changed).

True the names are changed, But no city would enjoy having it's name in a blow up, cop killing game. Since the September 11th terrorist attacks on New York it would be bad taste to have Niko a soviet immigrant cause hell and kill New York cops.

The Alderney safehouse is crappy and run-down, a downgrade even though the Algonquin safehouses are luxurious and much bigger.

In a game where money is useless you would think you could use some of that 1,000,000 dollars you make to upgrade the crappy apartments, buy a garage in the alley, add internet, add a big screen tv, pay rent, etc.

There is an Easter Egg that shows the previous protagonists along with "R.I.P."

Where is the location to this easter egg?

Check the link above

Pedestrian conversations are repetitive and are no where near as funny as they used to be.

Isn't the game supposed to be more serious? I mean come on, the games based in poor, old, drug and crime filled New York. Nothing funny about that. But i do agree they aren't as funny as prior games but I understand why Rockstar did that.

Some of the characters are downright painful and tedious. i.e. Brucie, Dwayne etc.

Story

The humor is weak throughout the game.

That is a personal opinion. I, for one, found many conversations hilarious.